S.A. is a magnet for college grads

By Tracy Idell Hamilton

Updated 4:20 pm, Thursday, August 9, 2012

Photo: Harry Thomas

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Over the last decade, the San Antonio metro area saw the sixth-highest jump in the percent of residents with bachelor’s degrees. In Texas, only Austin saw a bigger increase, according to a report released Wednesday looking at migration patterns in and out of the area from 1996-2010. Most of the migration flow was among Texas cities; Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles were the top out-of-state sources of migration flow

That's the counterintuitive news from a report released Wednesday that looked at migration patterns in and out of San Antonio.

That's not to say that those who earn their degrees in the Alamo City aren't pulling up stakes for greener pastures; they are. But college grads in other parts of the country are moving here, and they, along with those who return, are ultimately more valuable, said Jim Russell, a geographer who studies the relationship between migration and economic development.

“We know people are going to leave. That's a fact of life,” said Russell, who was asked to look at how San Antonio might become more like Austin, its more highly educated neighbor to the north.

This report, commissioned by Rackspace Chairman Graham Weston's 80/20 Foundation, doesn't answer that question. First the problem needed to be measured, Russell said, and what he found upends the conventional wisdom about the inevitable flight of San Antonio's young and educated.

The metro area is experiencing some of the fastest growth in the country — more people are moving in than out. That net increase in migration masks a more nuanced story, said Russell.

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More important, he said, is total migration — the number of people arriving plus those leaving. That circulation, he said, allows “financial capital, ideas (and) knowledge” to flow.

Because here's the rub: The more education one has, the more likely one is to move — and those with the most education go the farthest.

It's a paradox policymakers must grapple with, Russell said: College degrees are good for an individual, but a potential loss for the community.

San Antonio is indeed sending more college grads out into the world because there are more here.

In the decade ended in 2010, the percentage of the residents with a bachelor's degree or higher increased by 48 percent, while the overall population grew by roughly half that, according to U.S. Census data.

That makes it the sixth-fastest growing talent market in the country, Russell said. Austin ranks fourth as it increased its college-educated population by 52 percent.

The increase is tempered by San Antonio's overall low level of educational attainment — just 25 percent of the population over age 25 has a bachelor's degree or higher, a rank of 48th out of the 51 largest metro areas. That's compared to Austin's 39 percent.

While some of those who earn a college degree will move away, a certain percentage will always come back, generally with more skills and higher earning potential.

Teno Villarreal is part of that coveted cohort of young educated workers, and he's just returned home.

The 34-year-old St. Mary's University graduate returned two months ago after a stint in Washington, D.C., working on Capitol Hill and in the Department of Labor.

“San Antonio is doing some great things that made me want to come home and get involved,” said Villarreal, who works for the marketing firm Interlex.

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Turns out, his path to and from the nation's capital to San Antonio is common. Outside of the other major Texas metros, the city's top migrant trading partners are D.C. and Los Angeles.

Los Angeles does a lot to boost San Antonio's overall population and skew it younger, but most of those immigrants are low-skill workers, Russell said.

Their numbers tend to obscure the flow of college-educated workers like Villarreal, allowing the narrative that San Antonio is little more than a low-wage, low-skilled town to continue.

“San Antonio is an attractive place for college graduates,” said Daryl Byrd, executive director of SA2020, which partnered with the 80/20 Foundation on the report. “That's not a story we have had the data to tell.”